AppleTell » Originalshttp://www.technologytell.com/apple
Appletell covers your addiction to the Macintosh, iPhone, iPod, iPad, AppleTV, or any combination of these exciting products.Tue, 03 Mar 2015 20:00:00 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1Appletell covers your addiction to the Macintosh, iPhone, iPod, iPad, AppleTV, or any combination of these exciting products.AppleTellnoAppletell covers your addiction to the Macintosh, iPhone, iPod, iPad, AppleTV, or any combination of these exciting products.AppleTell » Originalshttp://www.technologytell.com/apple/files/powerpress/allnight-moon-539.pnghttp://www.technologytell.com/apple/category/originals/
Interview: Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Softwarehttp://www.technologytell.com/apple/147169/interview-jeff-vogel-discusses-role-playing-games/
http://www.technologytell.com/apple/147169/interview-jeff-vogel-discusses-role-playing-games/#commentsSun, 01 Mar 2015 15:28:46 +0000http://www.technologytell.com/apple/?p=147169"One of my key bits of advice for any young creative person, no matter what the medium, is to be a constant reader."

Jeff Vogel has been creating role-playing games since founding Spiderweb Software in 1994, releasing games such as the Exile, Avernum, Avadon, and Geneforge series, as well as Nethergate:
Resurrection. After reviewing Avernum 2: Crystal Souls for OS X, we contacted
Jeff Vogel to ask him about his games, the development process, and his platform of choice.

Erica (Technology Tell): Your games seem to have similar conflicts between Laws and Safety vs. Individualism and Freedom. I’ve always been curious as to why you use these
themes in your games and why you think they’re important.

Jeff Vogel (Spiderweb Software): It’s very intentional. I’ve always been fascinated with politics and history. I’m a lifelong news addict, and I’ve always been driven to
understand what humans are like and why we are capable of acting constantly in such self-defeating ways. Like many artists, these interests influence my art. Video games are my chosen medium, so
that is where I write about these themes. It helps that RPGs work very well for dealing…

]]>Remember when you were a kid? Perhaps you still are one. Chances are you
loved watching cartoons and videos that explored the world around you. Maybe you liked learning with Sesame Street or just watching your favorite animated characters and their awesome
adventures. Google remembers, which is why they’ve developed YouTube Kids. It’s an app specifically designed for kids. It’s filled with age appropriate content that parents can trust, and it’s
super easy to navigate.

While you’re at it being a kid, why don’t you pretend to be a Wizard in Wizard for Hire? This game has you employed as defense against invaders who are trying to get past you via balloons.
Don’t ask.

And if you’d rather be painfully grown-up, you can maximize your productivity with one of IFTTT’s three new streamlined apps. Each takes a simple task, like pushing a button, and allows you to
choose exactly what that does. The possibilities are endless, and surprisingly powerful, especially if you’re an avid user of Evernote, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter, and many…

]]>
My article last week—Apple Car or not, driverless cars are an
ethical dead end—looked at driverless cars and the associated ethical issues they raise, and it elicited the sort of response I’d anticipated from tech true believers. I especially got a
kick out of the “ignorant troglodyte” epithet lobbed my way. And “stuck in 1995?” Try 1965, which was around when my automotive enthusiasm really began to gel. No apologies for that. Jean-Louis
Gassée in a blog I reference further below, quotes his late countryman, the French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist, critic, and semiotician Roland Barthes, once observing about the
contemporaneous Citroën DS 19 (the car driven by the Patrick Jane character played by Simon Baker in The Mentalist is a quite similar later DS 21): “I think that cars today are almost the exact
equivalent of the great Gothic cathedrals; I mean the supreme creation of an era, conceived with passion by unknown artists, and consumed in image if not in usage by a whole population which
appropriates them as a purely magical object.”

I like computers, too, as tools, and occasionally as objects d’ art, but the hum of a power supply and images on a screen will never match the orchestral musicality of a V8 engine exhaling through
a set of dual tailpipes, the tactile pleasure of executing crisp gearchanges with a good manual transmission, or the overall satisfaction of driving quickly (and safely) through a challenging
stretch of twisty road.

I was disappointed by the dearth of reasoned argument regarding points I raised in the article. There was plenty of ad hominem critique of my alleged ignorance and obsolescent thinking, but nothing
on the…

]]>http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146742/practical-driverless-cars-decades-away-perhaps-never/feed/3The Best Free Apps for February 20, 2015http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146756/best-free-apps-february-20-2015/
http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146756/best-free-apps-february-20-2015/#commentsFri, 20 Feb 2015 16:21:54 +0000http://www.technologytell.com/apple/?p=146756Free apps are better when they're normally $10. Get Frozen Synapse before the developers come to their senses.

If you could choose between driving a monster truck or anything else, which would you pick? Obviously, the monster truck. MMX Racing is a game that puts you in control of a plethora of
trucks. The controls are simple, the graphics are great, and the jumps? Well, there are many. Looking to be more productive? With Microsoft’s latest update to OneNote for iPad, you can start taking
notes in your own handwriting and even extract text from pictures. But really, all anyone wants to do is play games, which is why you should go download Frozen Synapse right now before the
developer starts charging again. This is a unique strategy game that has you planning and testing your strategies, then executing them at the same time as your opponent. All this and more in this
week’s best free apps.

The Best Free iOS Apps:

MMX Racing – Admit it, you’ve always dreamed of driving a monster truck. Well, now you can in this adrenaline-filled racing game. The
controls are as simple as can be. No need to worry about shifting, just focus on nailing the start and getting to the finish line.There are all sorts of trucks to take control off, from pickups
to monsters.

]]>http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146756/best-free-apps-february-20-2015/feed/0Apple Car or not, driverless cars are an ethical dead endhttp://www.technologytell.com/apple/146530/apple-car-or-not-driverless-cars-are-an-ethical-dead-end/
http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146530/apple-car-or-not-driverless-cars-are-an-ethical-dead-end/#commentsSat, 14 Feb 2015 16:05:23 +0000http://www.technologytell.com/apple/?p=146530Sharing the road with a bunch of mindless automatons does not enchant me in the slightest.

I’ve been intrigued by rumors of an Apple Car project over the years. There were even unconfirmed reports of a secret automotive development unit at Cupertino during the Steve Jobs era. Mr.
Jobs was an auto enthusiast, and he met with then Volkswagen Group boss Martin Winterkorn in 2007 reportedly for a discussion about the concept of an Apple designed car that would have been built
by VW. Fast Company
also reports that according to J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler In an interview at Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored conference, “Steve’s dream before he died was to design
an iCar,” and that Jobs had wanted to add an automobile to Apple’s product lineup.

Appleinsider has posted a video clip of the
pertinent segment of Fast Company’s Drexler interview.

In a New York Times blog about Apple and disruptive technologies, Nick Bilton noted: “In a meeting in his office before he died, Steven P. Jobs, Apple‚’s
co-founder and former chief executive, told John Markoff of The New York Times that if he had more energy, he would have liked to take on Detroit with an Apple car.”

In November, 2012, another consummate car guy—Eddie Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President Internet Software and Services, and the guy behind Apple’s content stores, (including the iTunes Store, the
App Store and the iBookstore, as well as Siri, Maps, iAd and iCloud services)—was appointed to the board of directors of quintessential exotic supercar manufacturer Ferrari. There are plenty of car people still among Apple’s top executives. Apple’s marketing exec. boss Phil
Schiller is reportedly “all about cars,”and Bentley-driving Apple Chief designer Jony Ive is also evidently a car enthusiast.

Presumably, the sort of iCar Steve Jobs as a car enthusiast envisioned would’ve been traditional in the sense of human driver control, and…

]]>http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146530/apple-car-or-not-driverless-cars-are-an-ethical-dead-end/feed/3The Best Free Apps for February 13, 2015http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146498/best-free-apps-february-13-2015/
http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146498/best-free-apps-february-13-2015/#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 16:27:24 +0000http://www.technologytell.com/apple/?p=146498SNL, Mass Effect, and King of Thieves highlight this week's best free apps. Party on.

Well, it’s Friday the 13th, but that doesn’t mean bad things are going to happen. In fact, you’re in the right place to find some free apps and games. King of Thieves is a game that has you
stealing gold and gems from your friends and strangers whilst trying to protect your own stash of valuables. If you’ve ever been a fan of SNL, you’ll want to check out their new official app. It
gives you access to thousands of video clips and even a custom emoji keyboard that’s sure to pump you up. And if you’re looking for a new game to play, IGN is offering up Mass Effect Infiltrator
for free as their game of the month. But you should act fast; this game is normal $5 and won’t be free for long.

The Best Free iOS Apps:

King of Thieves – If you’re thinking to yourself, this game looks a lot like Cut The Rope, that’s just because it’s from the same
developer. Dodge traps and steal gold from other players in this unique platformer…

]]>http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146498/best-free-apps-february-13-2015/feed/0Does the iPad’s identity crisis spell its doom?http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146341/ipads-identity-crisis-spell-doom/
http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146341/ipads-identity-crisis-spell-doom/#commentsMon, 09 Feb 2015 16:58:18 +0000http://www.technologytell.com/apple/?p=146341We know what the iPad is good for, but does it need to be good for more?

]]>
MacStories founder and editor-in-chief Federico Viticci has created some buzz in the Apple blogosphere with a thoughtful and impassioned essay explaining why the iPad is his main computer and the
iOS is his operating system of choice.

The article is both a review of the iPad Air 2 and a response to a blog by Wired’s Kyle VanHemert contending that “Five years after its debut, the iPad faces an existential dilemma.
No one knows what it’s good for.” Viticci energetically disputes that assessment.

They argue their respective cases skillfully, and as a 22-year Mac user and fan who recently bought a new iPad Air 2 intended to replace a faithfully long-serving iPad 2, I find myself variously
agreeing and disagreeing with both protagonists.

VanHemert cites the late Steve Jobs’ analogizing tablet vs. PC to cars as opposed to trucks, suggesting PCs are like trucks, which were essential when we were all farmers. But with migration to
cities and suburbs, lighter, nimbler vehicles became a more practical choice, and innovations like automatic transmissions and power tipped the scales even more towards the desirability of cars.
Jobs insisted that while PCs would remain as tools for heavy hauling, for most users tablets would increasingly dominate.

I thought at the time it was a pretty sloppy analogy for a self-avowed automobile enthusiast. For one thing, trucks have never been more popular in this era of urban dwelling and working—much more
so than they were when some 80% of the population lived in rural communities. Moreover, the only domestic pickup truck still available with a manual gearbox is the new mid-size Chevrolet Colorado
and GMC Canyon fraternal twins, and only on the base 2WD four-cylinder model. There are no trucks without power steering left, either. I own one of the last domestic pickups available with a manual
gearbox, a 2011 Ford Ranger, which I specifically ordered because I find driving a stick much more enjoyable.

VanHemert also disputes the analogy, arguing that Jobs may have been right about PCs/trucks, but he got the other end wrong, at least in a 2015 context where smartphones are the cars, but
maintaining that tablets are…

The eagerly anticipated mobile shooter, Midnight Star, is ready and waiting to be played. Board the MSRV-Joplin, a research vessel with weapons, and get ready for action. But maybe you don’t
want to shoot stuff. Maybe you want to translate your voice into other languages using your phone. Good news, iTranslate Voice Free does just that. Or maybe you really do want to shoot stuff, but
you’d prefer that stuff to be pigs and you’d like to shoot them with birds. Angry Birds Seasons HD is Apple’s app of the week, and it has a brand new episode to play: NBA All-Star.

The Best Free iOS Apps:

Midnight Star – Some have called this game the most anticipated of mobile shooters, and it’s finally here for you to download.
It’s an epic sic-fi shooter designed for mobile play. It’s set 120 years into the future; you are onboard the MSRV-Joplin, a research vessel with…

]]>http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146264/best-free-apps-february-6-2015/feed/0Apple lawsuit wrap-up for January 2015http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146087/apple-lawsuit-wrap-january-2015/
http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146087/apple-lawsuit-wrap-january-2015/#commentsTue, 03 Feb 2015 00:22:00 +0000http://www.technologytell.com/apple/?p=146087Only a month into 2015, and already the patent trolls are at work.

]]>Apple lawsuits for the
month of January 2015 saw the return of non-practicing entities using patents purchased from long-defunct companies to try and get royalties while adding nothing to the computer industry.

Hot on the heels of the lawsuit claiming Apple defrauded users by having less available storage space than advertised, AppleInsider has an interesting
analysis of how iOS devices actually have more available space than Android devices.

Monster sued Beats, which is now owned by Apple, for defrauding them by first selling 51% of Beats to HTC and then acquiring 25.5% of Beats which allowed them to “exercise a change of ownership clause that effectively severed ties
with Monster.”

The MacBook Pro logic board class-action lawsuit in California was
dismissed because U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the plaintiffs had “failed to show that Apple made affirmative…

]]>http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146087/apple-lawsuit-wrap-january-2015/feed/0Finally time for a Yosemite upgrade? Not yet for mehttp://www.technologytell.com/apple/146028/finally-time-yosemite-upgrade-not-yet/
http://www.technologytell.com/apple/146028/finally-time-yosemite-upgrade-not-yet/#commentsSun, 01 Feb 2015 15:38:29 +0000http://www.technologytell.com/apple/?p=146028Upgrading from a stable Mavericks installation to iffy Yosemite still seems like a dice-roll at best.

]]>When Apple released the Yosemite 10.10.2 update last week, I thought the time had finally come for me to upgrade my 13-inch Haswell MacBook Air from
Mavericks to Yosemite. The main apprehension holding me back has been widespread reportage of WiFi connection issues with Yosemite. For me, system stability is priority one, and reliable WiFi is
about as fundamental as it gets.

However, the first item in the 10.10.2 changelog was a claimed fix for that problem:…